Abstract : We present the results of a research in geography funded by the Rhône-Alpes Region, within the ARC7 programme. The objective of this work is to offer an operational method to understand the organization of metropolitan areas. The study is based on an analysis of stocks and flows of people, incomes and travel structuring territories. The challenge is both to construct a renewed methodology and provide a representation of nodes and links that structure the spaces of large cities. It consists in studying the hierarchy, complementarity and dynamics of the various levels of urban centrality in urban areas. The cases studied and presented in this paper concerns Grenoble urban area. Several steps are proposed, including the identification of primary and secondary centers for work, shopping and leisure reasons, and the analysis of trends in the urban and peri-urban centralities, the links between the different areas of Grenoble region.